Marko Ramius Leaves Tulsa
By Staff Reports on March 7, 2020, at 6:00 PM
TULSA – A shock wave was sent through the Tulsa program and its fans today, as Marko Ramius announced he was leaving the program after turning down an extension of his contract at the end of the 2019 season.
"After the last 6 years coaching hundreds of great young men during many successful seasons in Conference USA and the Big East, I have decided it is time to take that next big step in my coaching career and open the door for new blood to take the reigns of the Tulsa offense." said Ramius. "I want to thank the administration here at Tulsa, the players and most importantly the fans, who came out week after week, season after season to watch our boys win games."
Ramius leaves after a 6 year stretch with the Golden Hurricane, coaching them to a 60-21 record and a 42-7 conference mark between Conference USA and the Big East. Along the way, Ramius collected three C-USA championships, bowl victories over UAB, Louisville and Georgia Tech, an O'Brien award winner and a plethora of All-Americans.
Heading into the off-season, Ramius' name had been linked to potential position openings at Akron, Army, Boise State, Northwestern, Oregon State, South Carolina, Stanford, Washington and Washington State.
A number of names ended up falling by the wayside as expected job openings failed to develop.
"I was keeping my options open going into the off-season, waiting to see what offers would come my way. South Carolina had me on their short list, but ended up going a different direction, while Northwestern, a school my name kept popping up next to in papers in recent months, an open position never materialized as the Wildcats chose to stick with the status quo for another season." stated Ramius.
Ramius continued, "While the offers were slow going early on, eventually they started pouring in from all over, head coaching offers from Akron, Ball State, Miami University, Minnesota, even Ole Miss, UCLA and Washington got in touch about their head coach openings. While I was honored to receive head coach offers from some of the big teams in the college football world, I couldn't in good faith take the position. Having been an offensive coordinator my entire career, jumping from OC at mid-major programs to head coach of a major program was a bit bigger of a jump than I was willing to make. I preferred to get my head coaching feet wet in the mid-major ranks so I wouldn't end up in over my head if I eventually call a major program home in the future."
But still, despite declining the head coaching offer, Washington wouldn't go away.
"I was surprised, after declining the contract offer on the head coach position at Washington, they came right back two days later offering me the offensive coordinator position. It was an offer that I sat on until my final decision." said Ramius.
"Of course, I had many more offensive coordinator offers than I had even received for head coach positions. Teams from across the nation were banging down my door with hopes of signing me. North Carolina spent two days in town, Stanford was right on their heels, Army, Boise State, Indiana and even Penn State gave me a call in regards to their job openings. I suppose as a testament to our offenses we produced at Tulsa that ran over opponents week after week, our conference opponents Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston and SMU all came calling to see about hiring me."
Ultimately, Ramius would whittle down the list of offers to just three.
"While the offers and phone calls kept flooding in, eventually three openings stood out to me. I had the offer from Washington to be their offensive coordinator, as well as an OC offer from Boise State. Boise State made it a difficult choice just because of the chance to go and coach on one of the hottest teams in the last decade and be able to take in that rich history firsthand. Washington, again, was one that instantly stood out as Washington is a school that I have long wanted to coach at some day, be it head coach or offensive coordinator."
But while mulling over the offers from Boise State and Washington, a third name came into the mix at the very end that shook up the entire decision process.
"I was sitting there stuck in the middle of a tough decision between Boise State and Washington, when the phone rang. It was another job offer, one from a school that wasn't even expected to make a change this season. At the very end of the cycle, Utah State had finished reviewing the season prior and despite good performances when it came to his contract, the administration decided an 0-12 season was too much and fired head coach George O'Leary. With most teams already settled down with their coaching staffs for the 2020 season, Utah State immediately threw up a hail mary to me to try and lure me in."
The addition of a head coach position at Utah State made an already difficult decision that much harder.
"Oh, the addition of Utah State completely threw everything out of balance. I had felt I was getting close to a decision between Boise State and Washington, but then to have the Utah State offer come it, it was back to square one. While Utah State, coming off an 0-12 season, definitely wasn't an ideal landing spot, the fact that it was head coaching position, one with most likely low expectations, it would be the perfect place to dip the feet into the head coaching pool, whereas I'd be instantly thrown into the fire as OC at Boise State and Washington and have to live up to regularly high expectations."
Eventually, after much additional consideration, Ramius came to his decision.
"Well, all three offers had their own positives and negatives to offer. Eventually, after much hard thought, I declined the Boise State offer. If I was going to remain an offensive coordinator, I wanted to do it with Washington and get a taste of west coast football in the Pac-12. So then it was down to just two offers. Offensive Coordinator at Washington or Head Coach at Utah State. After much more intense thought and decision making, I figured if my coaching career was ever going to be able to go up, I was going to have to take the leap. So I decided to make a hell of a splash with that leap, and accepted the head coach opening at Utah State."
With the decision made, Ramius shared his final thoughts as the 2020 season loomed on the horizon.
"It's certainly not going to be an easy job. The Aggies have a lot of holes that we'll need to get filled and a lot of ground to make up to be a competitive team. It doesn't help matters that we'll be going up against the likes of Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Frenso State, Hawaii and San Diego State in conference play. It's going to be a true battle week after week to pull off wins and improve the program. But I'm looking forward to the challenge."
So it's official. Marko Ramius, after six years at the helm of the offense at Tulsa, declines an extension at the end of his contract, steps down and, spurning offers the likes of Boise State, North Carolina, UCLA and Washington, decides to become the next head coach of Utah State, a team coming off an 0-12 season last year.
Utah State will get their 2020 season underway with a trip to take on rival Utah on August 29th.
Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes
Marko Ramius Leaves Tulsa
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Now that is funny. Yeah, Utah State was never even on my radar of consideration until Jayrah posted some pictures of "possible" new helmets for them last Wednesday in the Wishlist & Feedback forum. Ever since that post, it just sort of stuck in my mind, Utah State. I should go to Utah State. I wasn't completely sure on the move because they had just gone 0-12 in the 2019 season, so it was gonna be a hell of a challenge, but when the job offer popped up in the coaching carousel, I just instantly knew it was the move I want to make. I knew it was the right place for me.
Cornerbacks, one 84 and then the rest 66 or worse. A couple positions that the best player is 68 or 69. Yeah, this could be rough.
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